Major shakeup in admin
Rajindra is ADGP (L & O), Sahai is IGP Kmr, Sharma Pr Secy home; Vyas appointed Pr Secy to CM
Asgar Samoon is Div Com, Sirinivas new Int Chief
Lubhaya, Rafiq attached for Showgate
Special Commr/Spl IGP for north abolished
Ishfaq Mir
Srinagar, Aug 26: The state cabinet on Thursday ordered a major reshuffle in civil and police administration in an attempt to revamp the law and order machinery which has been at the receiving end for last over two months.
The significant decision was to revive the position of Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) with the posting of K Rajindra, currently ADG (CID). He will, however, hold the charge of ADG (Armed Police) as well. The post of ADGP (L & O) was created in Governor’s Rule in mid 90’s with a view to effectively overcome the challenges of militancy. A K Suri was the first officer to hold the post. Later on P S Gill briefly held the post during Farooq Abdullah’s tenure as Chief Minister from 1996-2002.
According to official spokesman, in respect of law and order matters, the two Zonal IGs of Kashmir and Jammu shall report to ADGP Armed/ Law and Order under the overall command and control of DGP, J&K.
The state cabinet, which met here with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in chair, also decided to remove Financial Commissioner (Home) Sameul Verghese who was replaced by more suave B R Sharma, currently Principal Secretary Power Development Department. Another significant change was of Bharat Bhushan Vyas who will take over as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister replaced Khushid Ahmad Ganai.
Shiv Murari Sahai is back as Inspector General of Police Kashmir zone. He was sent on “punishment” posting a year back and posted as OSD in Resident Commissioner’s office in New Delhi. His return to head the police at provincial level is also seen as a decision apparently taken after lot of thinking.
Attaching IGP (Security) Ram Lubhaya and SSP (Security) Rafiqul Hassan is seen as punishment to them for the grave security lapse at Bakhshi Stadium on August 15 where the suspended head constable Ahad Jan hurled a shoe at Chief Minister. Lubhaya was at that time in Leh in connection with the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but he is still be held responsible for laxity along with with Hassan.
By virtue of posting of Mohammad Sayeed Khan and transfer of Pankaj Saxena, the government has also abolished the posts of Special Commissioner and Special Inspector General of Police for North Kashmir created to deal with the situation in the last month of June.
Soon after Chief Minister recommended the dismissal of G M Saroori as R & B Minister, the cabinet also showed the door to his trusted lieutenant and Commissioner/Secretary R & B Mehboob Iqbal who has been attached with GAD.
Giving details of the transfers an official spokesman said that Samuel Verghese, Financial Commissioner, Home has been transferred and posted as Chairman, J&K Special Tribunal. Khushid A. Ganai, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister has been transferred and posted as Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department.
B. R. Sharma, Principal Secretary PDD has been transferred and posted as Principal Secretary, Home.
Bharat Bhushan Vyas, Commissioner Secretary, Planning and Development Department has been transferred and posted as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister. He shall continue to hold the additional charge of CEO, ERA till further orders.
K. B. Aggarwal, Chairman Special Tribunal has been transferred and posted as Commissioner Secretary PWD (R&B).
Basharat Ahmed Dhar, Commissioner Secretary, GAD has been transferred and posted as Commissioner Secretary, PDD. Mehboob Iqbal, Commissioner Secretary, PWD (R&B) has been transferred and asked to report GAD for further posting.
Naseema Lankar, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir has been transferred and posted as Commissioner Secretary, School Education. Asgar Hassan Samoon, Commissioner Secretary CAPD/Transport has been transferred and posted as Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir. G. A. Peer, Secretary Education has been transferred and posted as Excise Commissioner.
M. S. Khan, Special Commissioner, North has been transferred and posted as Secretary GAD. Pardeep Gupta, Excise Commissioner, J&K has been transferred and posted as Secretary, CAPD/ Transport. G. A. Qureshi, Vice Chairman, Jammu Development Authority has been transferred and posted as Joint Financial Commissioner (AR). Vinod Shamra, Director ERA has been transferred and posted as Vice Chairman, Jammu Development Authority.
POLICE:
K. Rajendra ADGP, CID, has been transferred and posted ADGP Armed/ Law and Order. In respect of law and order matters, the two Zonal IGs of Kashmir and Jammu shall report to ADGP Armed/ Law and Order under the overall command and control of DGP, J&K.
S .M. Sahai, OSD in Resident Commissioner’s Office, New Delhi has been transferred and posted as IGP, Kashmir. Dilbagh Singh, IGP Armed has been transferred and posted as Director SKPTA, Udhampur. Naveen Aggarwal, Director SKPTA, Udhampur has been transferred and posted as IG Railways. Arun Chowdhary has been posted as IG Technical Service, PHQ. D.R. Doley, IGP CID has been transferred and posted IG Headquarters.
Farooq Ahmed, IGP Kashmir has been transferred and posted as IGP (Security). B. Srinivas, IGP, Headquarters has been transferred and posted as IGP, CID. The services of Mr. Pankaj Saxena, Special IG North have been placed at the disposal of Government of India for his posting on deputation.
Ram Lubahya, IGP Security has been attached in PHQ till further orders.
Zahoor Chisti, IG, Technical Services, PHQ has been transferred and posted as IG Armed/ IRP Kashmir. Ravinder Kotwal, IG Railways has been transferred and posted as IG Armed/ IRP Jammu. Kifayat Haider, SSP Pulwama has been transferred and posted as SSP Security, Kashmir. Abdul Razak Khan, presently looking after the charge of SP Pulwama has been transferred and posted as SP Pulwama. Rafiq –ul- Hassan, SSP Security has been attached in PHQ till further orders.
In the meeting which lasted about two hours, the cabinet also decided to conduct a survey in Jammu and Srinagar cities to reduce traffic mess.
“Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES), a GoI enterprise would be given a contract to conduct a survey in Jammu and Srinagar cities and come up with a concrete programme to deal with the growing traffic in the two major cities,” sources privy to the meeting told Rising Kashmir.
The cabinet also extended the term of State Finance Commission by three months and the decision of allotment of additional land to Central University Jammu.
SFC has been working to suggest how all regions of the State would get equal share of development. The commission is also looking into the demand of Bhartiya Janta Party and Panthers Party about delimitation of the constituencies.
The cabinet also approved the decision to grant an additional 150 acres of forest land to Central University Jammu.
A senior minister of the ruling coalition, pleading anonymity, said the meeting also discussed R&B Minister, G M Saroori’s “sudden” decision of going for Umrah.
“CM took a strong note of Saroori’s visit to Makkah without permission. Later Omar sahib got a call from Congress High Command telling him to sack the R&B minister. He accordingly recommended the dismissal of Saroori to Governor N N Vohra.”
